Be Careful When You Winter Spread

Editor’s Note: Though this release is specific to Wisconsin, it offers good tips where ever there is frozen ground.

Winter's snow and frozen ground make it a riskier time to spread manure on fields -- and a good time to follow Ben Franklin's famous advice: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, state water quality officials say.

"A day or two of very warm weather generating snowmelt or rainfall on frozen soils can produce unusually high risk for runoff," says Jim Vanden Brook, water quality section chief for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Protection.

"Check the Manure Management Advisory System for current National Weather Service forecasts of runoff risk in your area and avoid spreading on those days when the risks are high.”

Large-scale farms with state wastewater discharge permits are prohibited from surface applying solid manure on frozen or snow-covered ground during February and March, liquid manure whenever ground is frozen or snow-covered, and face other spreading restrictions. Farms without permits do not face the same restrictions but will want to avoid spreading when rain or melting snow is forecast, and if they must apply, do so to fields with the lowest risk of runoff.

Tom Bauman, who coordinates the Department of Natural Resources animal waste section program, encourages farmers to take other precautions.

"Manure keeps coming 24/7, so taking a few more precautions and having a manure spill response plan in place can help you avoid problems this winter," he says. “The last thing you want to do on a bitter cold day or night is deal with a manure spill or runoff."